Authors DAVID BRAMWELL (No9 Bus To Utopia, Odditorium) and  JOHN HIGGS (Stranger Than We Can Imagine, Making Sense Of The 20th Century) take the audience on a rollercoaster ride through the outer edges of 60s counterculture and how an experiment to launch chaos, culture jamming and trickery into the world to ’shake people out of their reality tunnels’ got seriously out of control.

From goddess worship and the Church of the Subgenius to Burning Man and Pepe the Racist Frog, this talk winds its way through some of the strangest corners of counterculture in an attempt to demonstrate that fake news has been around a lot longer than we think! 

Hosted by Make Waves

Should documentarians seek be drivers of social or political change? How do producers, directors and distributors go about maximising the social impact of their work? Can a film really change the world? Our panellists will seek to answer these questions and more as they discuss the rights, wrongs, and realities of 'issue-based' documentary-making.

Panelists: 

Linda Lewis (moderator)

George Amponsah

Daisy-May Hudson

Jack Lundie

Be a pundit for a morning! Byline festival goers give their own personal review of the weekend's press coverage of the general election

With YOU - the PEOPLE

Hosted by Make Waves

Rebecca Frayn (moderator)

Fernando Meirelles (pre-recorded interview)

Steffen Wild

In recent years, documentaries have moved out of the cinematic shadows and into the mainstream. Blockbuster documentaries, or 'docbusters' such as March of the Penguins and Amy are playing to packed cinemas, and prominent figures from the world of feature films are getting involved in creating and producing documentaries. This influx of talent, ideas and money has in many ways reinvigorated the modern documentary, however some would argue that it has also dragged the genre away from its observational, journalistic roots. Our panel will discuss the creative and economic impact of this phenomenon, and will ask whether the 'dramatisation' of documentaries is a natural and welcome evolution of the genre, or just another form of 'fake news'.

Exhibition and display of classic photo journalism and how it can help in the fight against fake news

Heather Brooke will deliver a keynote speech about the importance of free access to information and the signs of democratic decay in the US and the UK, followed by Q&A with the audience. 

From the Panama Papers to the Kremlin Laundromat: who is paying for votes? 

MALINI MEHRA (chair)

CAROLE CADWALLADR

Observer/Guardian

LAURENCE COCKROFT

Transparency international, author Unmasked: Corruption in the West

LUKE HARDING

Guardian Investigative Journalist

KEYNOTE SPEECH by CAROLE CADWALLADR author of the Great British Brexit Robbery

Panel discussion

PETER YORK (CHAIR)

Former editor, the Face

JAMES PATRICK

Byline Investigative Journalist

DR IDREES AHMAD

Lecturer in Digital Journalism

ADAM RAMSAY

Open Democracy

DAMIAN TAMBINI

LSE

Can wikis and blockchains restore Trust?

NEIL ERSKINE (CHAIR)

Data expert

DAN EVANS

Byline Investigations

IMRAN KHAN

Wirex

BRETT SCOTT

Author of the The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money 

Artificial intelligence or machine learning: who gave algorithms an automatic authority

ANDREW SMITH

Author, Totally wired

ROBIN HUNT

Futurist, formerly Guardian Digital

JAMES PATRICK

Byline investigative journalist

Community fact checking and editing: discussion with Wikimedia chief exec LUCY CROMPTON-REID , a Wikimedia trustee,  and DR MARTIN POULTER Wikimedian in Residence

Have the ideals of hackitivism been hijacked by undemocratic forces?

KEYNOTE SPEECH BY LAURI LOVE

Panel discussion

DR IDREES AHMAD

Lecturer in Digital Journalism

NAOMI COLVIN

The Courage Foundation

DAVID BRAMWELL

Historian and Writer